Home › Archive for 3D Design

Category: 3D Design

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Exploratory Practices, Garage, Projects, VFX Fundamentals No Comments

For this garage project, I have come up with this idea of intergrating a plant communication machine into the scene. I used AI to visualize and come up with some interesting shapes in mind of how this machine is going to look like. I want the look to be sci-fi but not with heavy machinery, rather more organic modelling. If I have more time at the end I want to make some complex wire connection with some human intergrated into the scene as well.

Through this project, I want to have a better understanding of how to work with CG in Nuke, combining 2D and 3D elements together seamlessly, as well as improving my modelling and texturing skills. I am very happy with the idea and looking forward to bring it to life 🙂

Variation 1:

Block out shapes
Visualizing with emission and simple materials

At the first blocking out and testing textures stages, I figured I didn’t like the shape of this variation very much. Imagining placing it in the Garage plate, I opt for a design that is wider horizontally, also to look for some hard surface machinery details to make the model more complex and realistic.

Machinery Research

After looking at a few references on Pinterest, I proceeded to try sketching some ideas on top of the plate.

Final Design Visualization:

Eventually, I decided to use AI to visualize some more designs that are tailored to my vision.

1
4
6

2
3
5
7

I ended up choosing design 6 & 7, I think they look pretty and not too complex, yet can still convey the overall look that I have been looking for.

Most challenging parts:

  • Pipes, I thought they would be easy to make but turns out there are so many different techniques that could be used depending on your needs. I eventually found one that works best for me, so I used it throughout the whole design.
  • Importing Quixel Bridge Assets into Blender: Textures error/no Texture (Resolved)

Test render:

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Nuke, Projects, Unreal Engine, VFX Fundamentals No Comments

Reflection:

Overall, I am happy of how this project turned out, as well as appreciating the knowledge that I have earned through the process of making it. One of the most challenging aspect for me at the beginning that has affected my ability to start was being unsure of what I wanted to make, which got me really anxious and definitely did not help my creativity. I figured I was being too ambitious and got overwhelmed by all the ideas I wanted to make and all the softwares to learn. I eventually had some reflection and reminded myself that the main aim of this project is for me to learn new softwares and practice VFX fundamentals, so I need to lower my expectation for myself and just experiment. I did not have a plan or storyboard at first, and the idea only started coming together as I was creating my Unreal Scene. I have had the vision in mind of the theme that my art usually follows, so every idea after that was by all mean a trust in my own process and experimentation.

Unreal Engine:
In terms of my scene in Unreal Engine, this was the first time that I have used the software and was definitely amazed by how powerful it is in handling such a heavy scene full of foliage (in real time as well). That being said, it took me experimenting on a dozen of projects before I was finally satisfied with what I created, which eventually helped me get more fluent with the software itself. If I have had more time or had a clearer vision in mind, I would have modelled more of my own objects and learned how to texture them realisticly to put into the scene. However, I optimized by playing around with every single material in the scene, from static meshes to foliage to landscape material. This has definitely made me feel more confident on working with models and materials in Unreal. Moreover, I have learned the workflow of importing Alembic into Unreal for animation. The most time consuming part of this was setting up and applying the material for every single parts of the model. In the future, I want to learn how to animate properly and using FBX or USD format to understand the workflow more intensively, also to give myself more freedom in posing and animating the characters.

Zbrush/Substance Painter/Daz
Throughout this project, I have strengthen my skill and love for 3D art when I got to learn my 2 favourite softwares Zbrush and Substance Painter. The leaf boat in particular was something so simple yet I put much effort to make it my own creation. I definitely have spent way more time than I needed to on the sculpting of the boat. If I had to do it again, I would have painted the veins of the leaf with Substance Painter. Yet the workflow that I took luckily taught me valuable lessons in how to work with high & low poly in Zbrush, as well as the baking process before moving to texturing. Considering what I have learned for this, I consider it as a win 🙂

Other used softwares:
Blender: Modelling, Particle system, Animation
Nuke: Compositing the bubbles
Photoshop: Texture creation and editting
Premiere Pro: Final Video editing and rendering

What I want to improve in the future projects:
Apart from strengthening my skill in animation, modelling/sculpting/texturing, I definitely want to be more mindful about the filmmaking/cinematic aspect in the future. I think the final video turned out beautifully, yet it lacks storytelling. I believe if I had solidify a vision earlier on, I would have spent more time on planning, writing a script and making a storyboard. This is typically a workflow known in the industry as well, so eventhough I have always been working purely based on intuition and experimentation, I need to improve on this so I can create more impactful visuals and for anyone who wants to understand my creative process better.
Furthermore, I want to use Nuke more in my future projects since I think it’s a very powerful software. However I have considered its uses in this project and thought it would be better if I know how to to 3D tracking and compositing due to the light and shadow of the scene (which we haven’t fully learned on yet). Luckily the bubble worked out perfectly as it has a complex shader that I have set up, which would be hard to transfer from Blender to Unreal, therefore the use of Nuke in this case is justified and helped blending the bubbles into the scene nicely.

After all, thank you so much for all the help from my tutors to make this project happened!

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Projects, Unreal Engine, VFX Fundamentals No Comments
Eye Blink Animation

As time was restricted, I decided to use my favourite software Daz for human model creation. I have morphed my own characters so it was very convenient to pose them exactly how I wanted. The model also comes with its own textures that I can use later in Unreal Engine. My idea behind the pose is to later situated the model inside the leaf boat, then add some butterflies into the scene. I also wanted some movement so the model doesn’t look like a static mesh, so I animated the eye blink movement, tried my best to make them dynamic and as lively as possible. If I had more time I would have animated the whole body as well, but I feel good about the result nevertheless.

I was not particularly happy with the fact that Alembic import didn’t name or sort out the material, so it took me quite a bit of time to assemble and set up all the materials one by one. Luckily, I have worked with Daz model before in Blender and there is a particular order to each body part, so it did help me in guessing which one is which. Initially I got frustrated with this so I tried out different technique to import the animation in, from using Daz to Unreal plugin (which didn’t work), to FBX, etc… I decided that nothing looks better than the Alembic route so I went back and tried to finish.

After setting up all the materials manually, there were two problems arised.

  • Firstly, the hair was really patchy and not looking great at all, especially at the root and area that has heavier shadow. As I imported the whole model in as a single alembic, there was no way I could separated the hair from the body for modification. I eventually took the time and imported a separated model without the hair first. Then I imported the hair into Blender and converted it to a particle system, exported as Alembic and imported again into Unreal Engine. The hair is now read with UE5 Grooming system, so i have more options to adjust the hair roots and tips until it looks better
  • Secondly, the eyes textures turns black after importing into UE5. I resolved this by finding a few different textures to test until it worked out. I also had to set the Cornea material to transparent in order for the Irises to show.
Creating Butterfly animation in Blender

I created two simple butterflies animation in Blender, using pictures I found online. Then I put them into Photoshop to create their normal maps and opacity maps. I would say this is one of my favourite technique to learn and can be used in so many cases in the future.

Fixing roughness on the butterfly using Material Instance

Resources:

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, VFX Fundamentals No Comments

UV Unwrap

After sculpting the leaf boat, I imported the low poly model into blender and tried to UV unwrapped it. I found this tutorial that showed how to UV unwrap complex object using a tool called “Seam from island” that helped me create seams from separated parts of the model that I have previously unwrapped individually. Since this is my first time trying out UV unwrapping, I don’t think this was the best result, but it’s good enough for me to import into Substance Painter and start texturing the model.

Texturing using Substance Painter

Typical Setting for importing
Texture Maps after baking

At this point I was wondering why the holes and cuts on the leaf didn’t show up in the viewport, eventhough I saw that it baked out an opacity map. Tempted by the question, I found out that the solution is to add an opacity channel and also to change the Shader Setting into PBR-metal-rough-with-alpha in order for the opacity map to appear properly.

Opacity Map finally works in the viewport

Leaf texture references

Variation 1
Variation 2

I have decided to go with variation 2 as it matches the overall look of my UE5 scene more.

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Projects, VFX Fundamentals No Comments Tagged with , , ,

While searching for inspiration for a boat design to add into my scene, I found this illustration of a Leaf Boat that perfectly matches my vision in terms of simplicity and nature-theme related. I have always wanted to practice with organic shapes and texture, so this can be a fun idea to try out.

Some other illustation that inspired the vibe I want to go for

Keywords:

  • Pastel colour
  • Nature
  • Light Fantasy
  • Flow
  • Dreamlike
  • Fairycore
  • Mushroom

For me the most challenging part in the modelling process was figuring out how to make this end bit of the leaf that looks like a tree trunk.

I try to keep this as a low poly version as I will sculpt another detailed high poly version before moving to texturing.

After modelling for awhile, I have an idea of animating the leaf to open up and revealing something inside. So I created a second leaf and put it on top. I might make a character and put her inside the boat.

<– I really like the flow curves of the leaves

After extract operation

I then imported the rough model into Zbrush for further modification before sculpting in the detailed version

Masking the cuts and holes on the leaf

At this point, I notice that the edges of the cut-off mesh has these jagged problems. So I have found a solution by using
Deformation > Polish by features (with a closed O)
This has helped cleaned up the holes and cuts.


Before
Using Zremesher
After
Polishing after Zremesher

When I’m happy with the overall mesh, I proceeded to researching on leaf textures. I don’t want to overdo it as it’s only a stylized leaf boat, but adding some textures on it would help it matches with my realistic scene in Unreal better.

After a few trial and errors, I have successful sculpted the details onto the leaf. I used Damstandard for the veins as it resulted in more smoothed lines than Standard or Inflate brushes. Then I used Blob to further texturing the rest of the leaf.

Overall this process took me a lot of time, yet I have learned so much through experimenting with different technique. I learned about how to use Zremesher to retpologize my mesh, tried out projecting details from high to low poly (which I ended up didn’t use), how to sculpt with mask and regular brushes in Zbrush, etc…

Resolving dotted stroke by using Lazy Mouse settings

This was probably the most fun and satisfying part, sculpting the veins on the leaves is pretty abstract yet I figured that they do follow a sort of pattern.

Stroke > Lazy Mouse

I am overall satisfied with the result so far, I will then move on to Substance Painter to bake the details and paint on this model.

Final Result

Reference:

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Projects, VFX Fundamentals No Comments

Upon reflection, I acknowledge that my process has been delayed significantly due to my mental and physical health this term. I have been unable to finalise on an idea that I want to work on, also being behind in class has really struck on my confidence in my skill and vision. This has always been a struggle for me as a 3D artist & being affected by social media. Though seeing other artists’ works can be great source of inspiration, it has inevitably got me lost and anxious into choosing a direction to move forward. This is why I have had many UE5 scenes being made then abandoned, yet they all have somewhat helped me practice my knowledge in UE5 just by remaking new scenes over and over again until I made something that really fulfilled my creative vision. I am thankful for the patience and help I got from my classmates and tutors throughout this term <3


For this project, I want to go purely for an aesthetic to help me conclude and practice what I have learned throughout this VFX Fundamental Unit. I have always love the beauty of nature mixed with fantasy that brings a familiar sensation but at the same time transcend further into something out of ordinary. Below are illustrations/concept art that conveys the mood and the aesthetic that I have been looking for in my work. They tend to bring a sense of peacefulness, while act as an invitation for us to step into that world and explore further.

Keywords: Etheral, Flow, Dreamcore, Nature, Mythical,…

My creative process has always been rather intuitive and experimental, so I didn’t exactly planned or blocked out my scene. I went back and forth a lot in creating this scene, my process is definitely not linear, however I will try to summarize the techniques I used below.

I was envisioning a pond at first, and have attempted to tried out different water system before decided on using Water Body River, as I prefer its type of wave more than Ocean or Lake. I really like the original flow curve of the river already, so I went back and forth between sculpting the landscape and extruding the river, morphing it into a yin-yang shape. I also didn’t like how the landscape is square and wanted a continuity between the river and the ocean body, so I used Flatten brush to push all the surrounding land down to connect the river with ocean. I also reduced the flow of the river water so the waves look more calm.

Before
After

For the landscape material, at first I tried out the technique of creating different material layers to paint on, yet I didn’t like the result very much as I need more variation to my surface in order for the landscape to look realistic. Yet it only works up to 3 layers, any more layer I created after that started to make the paint glitches and not showing up properly. So I found this Foliage addon that has the type of grass I wanted to use, but also a landscape material that consists of many organic layers that look realistic while being used together.

I was going for more of a dreamlike palette, so I changed the colours/tint of all the materials by going into the base color textures and modify the hues.

Changing the hues of each material
The material layers now follow the color palette that I wanted
Adding trees

I initially was going to model my own trees and foliage, but ended up using add ons I found on the marketplace as I wanted a realistic look and it is very time consuming to start from scratch. However all the models and foliages looked very basic at first so I went in and modify all the textures to turn them into something of my own.

I spend a lot of time painting the foliage and changing its colours, mixing between shades of white, green and pastel blue to further enhance the dreamlike look. I bumped the foliage density up really high for most part as I want the land to look like a cloud floating on water.

Similarly I did to the mushrooms here, but I also increase all of its sizes to make them look more surreal, like how in Alice in wonderland everything is either too big or too small.

At this point I am very satisfied with the overall look of the scene. For the environment I purposely increase the fog’s density to make it more cinematic and creating a god ray effect through the trees. I also changed the cloud material, speed and hue to match it with the overall look.

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Balloon Festival, Nuke, Projects, VFX Fundamentals No Comments

Previously I have modelled the balloon for this project, this time I created shaders for them to make 2 different colour variations. I wanted a fun fantasy look that feels dynamic, so not only I animated the movement of the balloons to rotate but also add some shakiness and tilts to them. I purposely chose glass and glossy material with the intention to make them the main highlight of the scene. On the balloon itself is a shader that I also animated in the end to make a lava lamp/lightning effect that ended up looking really cool.

Balloon 1
Balloon 2
My Nuke setup

By Posted on Posted in 3D Design, Nuke, VFX Fundamentals No Comments Tagged with

I already have a 3D background in Blender and Daz3D before starting the course, so I found Maya pretty similar and easy to get on with. On that note, 3D modelling is something I’m still not very good at, therefore this is a great opportunity to practice. I personally prefer organic modelling/sculpting than hard surface modelling, but knowing my weakness is a good place to start improving.

As we were assigned to model a hot air balloon, I went on looking for a better reference as I want more complex shapes to practice with. This one caught my eyes since the base reminds me of Greek temples/architecture.

First attempt – Before Subdiv
Second attempt – Before Subdiv
First attempt – after SubDiv
Second attempt – After Subdiv

I started modelling the hot air balloon in Maya, then switched to Blender when it comes to the base because it has more complex shapes. Also I kept finding myself pressing Blender hotkeys unconsciously, so it took me a lot of time to even model simple objects in Maya.

I begin with a cube with Subdiv modifier, then used extrude/inset tools continuously to modify the mesh. In this particular example of the base, I have learned to be mindful about Individual Median Points & normals as I wanted to model 4 individual faces/sides to look the same. After the first base, everything seems to be much more easier as I got more used to the technique. I finished off by using curve to create the strings dangling around the hot air balloon.

What I have realized throughout my modelling process up to this point is that I tend to go quite high poly as I care a lot about the details. Yet sometimes I don’t need so many polygons to create the same shape. Optimizing my model is something I want to improve more in the future.

Final result

Overall I am very happy with the result and this was a great opportunity for me to warm up my modelling skill again. I have decided that I will use Blender to finish this project as well as for future modelling for time efficiency.